A collision on Sunday between a derailing high-speed train and an oncoming train in southern Spain, which has killed at least 39 people and injured 152 others, according to state broadcaster ⁠RTVE. Dozens of people have been wounded, and rescue efforts are ongoing.

Alvaro Fernandez Heredia, the president of state-owned rail operator Renfe, which one ran one of the trains involved in the crash, has said that “human error is practically ruled out” as a cause for the collision.

Speaking to local radio station Cadena Ser, Heredia said the crash happened in “strange conditions” but added it was too early to talk about the cause.

He also said that a commission tasked with investigating the collision has headed to the site to collect evidence.

As we’ve been reporting, Spain’s high-speed railway ⁠network is the largest in Europe and the second-biggest in the world after China, according to state-owned rail infrastructure administrator Adif.

The country opened up its high-speed rail network to private competition in 2020 in an attempt to offer low-cost alternatives to state-owned rail operated Renfe’s Ave trains.

There were about 400 passengers on the two trains that collided, operated by Iryo and Alvia, according to a statement from Renfe.

Iryo is a joint venture between Italian state railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato, airline ‍Air Nostrum and Spanish infrastructure investment fund Globalvia. It started operating in November 2022, starting with the Madrid-Barcelona route and expanding to other major cities.

French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed his condolences over the train collision.

“My thoughts are with the victims, their families and the entire Spanish people. France stands by your side,” he said in a post on X.

Spain’s royal palace has said King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are following the news of the deadly train crash “with great concern”.

The monarchs offered “our most heartfelt condolences to the relatives and loved ones of the dead, as well as our love and wishes for a swift recovery to the injured”, the palace said in a statement.

The Spanish Congress of Deputies has called for a minute of silence at midday (11:00 GMT) in tribute to the victims of the train accident, El Pais newspaper reports.

“The lower house joins in the grief of all Spanish citizens and extends its deepest condolences to the affected families,” a statement by the chamber said, according to the newspaper.

The city of Huelva, close to the site of the accident, has declared three days of mourning, El Pais said.

Most of those dead and badly injured from the crash were at the front of the trains that derailed, particularly in the one that was travelling from Madrid to Huelva, journalist Lily Mayers tells Al Jazeera.

“It’s a very popular network. [The trains] are used every day by Spaniards in Spain, and it helps people connect and commute really quickly across the country, so they’re very popular,” she said from Madrid, adding that this was the worst crash in at least a decade.

“In 2013, the worst crash in history happened in Galicia [in] the northwest of the country when 80 people died in a derailment. So this isn’t the first time Spaniards have experienced a tragedy of this size, but unfortunately, that number of the death toll is continuing to rise this morning.”

A passenger on the train which crashed and which was bound for the city of Huelva, who gave only her first name Montse, told Spanish public television that the train, “with a jolt, came to a complete stop, and everything went dark”.

She described being thrown around in the last carriage and seeing luggage hit other passengers.

“The attendant behind me hit her head and was bleeding. There were children crying,” she added.

“Luckily, I was in the last car. I feel like I was given a second chance at life.”

Survivor Lucas Meriako, who was travelling on the other train that derailed, told La Sexta television that “this looks like a horror movie”.

“We felt a very strong hit from behind and the feeling that the whole train was about to collapse, break … there were many injured due to the glass,” he said.